About a half hour ago I was giving Alex some water when suddenly there was this massive explosion. A huge crash and a puff of wind came in and blew my shirt, so I was sure that someone was driving by the main street next to my in-law's house and slammed into the wall.

Nope. The Repsol refinery - which is the main reason this little town exists - had a massive explosion. So after some awe watching this huge plume rise, I went back in and grabbed the camera. We're now listening to the sounds of sirens every few minutes race by. We have *no* idea yet what happened. And I seem to be the only one worried that the plume could be insanely toxic (and am ready to pack the family's bags and return to Madrid). But we'll see what happens. I've been told by my father in-law who worked at the refinery for 40 years that this is not normal by any measure. Fun.

Update: 8 hours later and the refinery is still burning. Four tanks have gone up so far. Here's the front page story from El Mundo a national paper here in Spain. They *say* that it's just refined gasoline burning, so there's not cause for alarm or worry, but that's the shit big corps always say so that they don't get bad press or alarm an entire city. I'm trying to figure out how to get Ana and Alex back to Madrid without insulting the in-laws, but I don't think it's going to happen.